There are bloody battles being fought in Afganhistan at this very moment killing men, women and children in an attempt to bring democracy to that nation. The privilege of being able to vote in elections is a right that we in this and other countries have had for so long now that we take it for granted.
DEMOCRACY: di-mok’ra-si. Noun. A form of government in which the supreme power is rested in the people collectively and is administered by them or by officers appointed by them: a state of society characterised by recognition of the equality of rights and privileges, political, social or legal.
That’s what voting is supposed to bring us. But for a true democratic state to exist all the people must be aware of all of the facts all of the time. Something of an impossibility in these days of sound bights where spin has become a legitimate part of political rhetoric.
For democracy read plutocracy.
The world is governed and controlled by institutions that are anything but democratic. Namely the World Bank, the IMF and the WTO. Democracy is the illusion that covers the fact that we are living in a plutocracy, a government of the rich. I read somewhere that 5% of the people owns 80% of the world’s wealth. I don’t know if those figures are correct but I do know that very few are getting a fair crack of the whip. It’s our dependency on oil based products and cheap goods that has allowed this state of affairs to come into being and continues to prop it up while lining the pockets of the greedy.
If we can look beneath the dirty bed linen and avoid the politician’s bad breath then it’s easy to see the real reasons for invading Iraq, Afghanistan and heaven knows where next. Yes they have brought the vote to thousands but not to those who have been killed in the effort. Up to 1st April 2009 (the day of Britain’s official handover of Basra to the Americans) there are the 179 British soldiers, 55 British workers and 3500 Iraqi civilians who have forfeited their democratic right to vote by dieing in Iraq . And yes one despotic leader has been deposed, but one who was put there and encouraged by the west when they felt the time was right. There are plenty more left untouched in the world that don’t have the magic ingredient of oil reserves.
So what is the answer for those who like me don’t want to live in a world of wars, inequality, injustice and the daily humiliation of millions of people who have no hope of a life worth living?
One answer is to use your vote…
Don’t just stay at home saying you abstain when really you have been out shopping.
That gives them the excuse of voter apathy.
Don’t destroy your polling card or write something stupid on it.
That they can just ignore.
Join us in showing your dissatisfaction in a peaceful and non-violent manner by…….
Cast a blank vote to let them see that you believe and feel that there is no one worth your XXX.
If 50 percent of the poll were blank then that would be a way of saying that society has to change but the political parties just don’t have the balls to do it. Then maybe, just maybe the democratic system might be re-thought.
If you find that you agree with me then please send this page on to everyone in your address book. I would love to see it going global and then when listening to the news of foreign elections hear that the so-called politico-pundits were astonished to find that the ballot boxes of Mexico, Italy even Iraq and Afghanistan were brimming with blank cards.
David Motta
With gratitude to Jose Saramago for the original idea in his two novels
Blindness and Seeing